Member Avatar for rivers

I copied photos to desktop and now cnnot delete them. In fact, they are multiplying! I delete the icons and they deep coming back. Up to 11-12 copies to this point. Anyone know what is going on?
Jack

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Dani AI

Generated

A few quick, practical checks and a simple diagnostic to find what is actually recreating the photos.

First-level checks (fast)

  • Confirm whether the items on the desktop are real image files or shortcuts: view the Details/Type column or right‑click -> Properties. Turn on file extensions in Folder Options (View -> uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types") so you can see .jpg vs .lnk.
  • Look at the system tray for any sync/backup clients (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Backup & Sync, vendor photo software). Pause syncing or open the client to see which folders are being monitored.
  • Check whether the Desktop folder has been redirected to another location or network share: open your user Desktop folder, right‑click -> Properties -> Location.

If the items keep reappearing, find the creator (reliable method)

  • Use Process Monitor (Procmon) to see what process creates the file. Run Procmon as Administrator, stop capture, add an Include filter where Path contains your Desktop path (for example C:\Users\YourName\Desktop), and include operations like CreateFile/WriteFile. Start capture, then delete a desktop item and watch which process shows the create/write event. That tells you the program to investigate or disable. (Procmon download/info: https://learn.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/procmon)

Other useful steps

  • Check Task Scheduler and Autoruns for anything that runs at login and might copy files back. (Autoruns: https://learn.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns)
  • Boot to Safe Mode and delete one copy to see if it returns; Safe Mode prevents many startup programs from running.
  • Run an up‑to‑date antivirus/malware scan if nothing else explains it (Malwarebytes is a common tool).

These steps find the process or service doing the restoring, which is the key to a permanent fix. Credit to earlier suggestions from and for pointing toward basic removal and testing; the Procmon approach will identify the root cause if it comes back.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for starfireone

Have you try just draging them to the recycle Bin? Where did you copy them from, a camera device or a flash drive? You might try disconnecting the camera or drive from the PC.

Member Avatar for rivers

Have you try just draging them to the recycle Bin? Where did you copy them from, a camera device or a flash drive? You might try disconnecting the camera or drive from the PC.

Thanks for your suggestion, but I hjave tried that and the photo icons keep coming back. They were origianlly from my digital camera, but the camera is not connected to the computer. Origianlly they were copied to my desktop from "MY Pictures". And they were originally edited in "Microsoft Picture It". When I begin deleting the photo icons, it seems that more copies are generated which take the place of ones I delete? Any other suggestions?
Jack

Member Avatar for rivers

Thanks for your suggestion, but I hjave tried that and the photo icons keep coming back. They were origianlly from my digital camera, but the camera is not connected to the computer. Origianlly they were copied to my desktop from "MY Pictures". And they were originally edited in "Microsoft Picture It". When I begin deleting the photo icons, it seems that more copies are generated which take the place of ones I delete? Any other suggestions?
Jack

Since I sent this last thread, it appears as though the problem is solved. I moved all shortcuts that I use to the "Un-used" desktop shortcut folder and then deleted all of the photo icons again. I also deleted the original photos that kept coming back from "My Pictures". This seems to have solved the problem. We'll see. Thanks for your help.
Jack

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